Has anyone used a pair of powered noise-cancelling headphones? They're the kind that use a AA or AAA battery to power a tiny microphone that picks up ambient noise and sends it through to a processor in the headphone that reverses the sound wave and outputs that through the headphones - effectively cancelling out ambient noise.

They're all pretty expensive, which is not so great, but on a flight down to Melbourne recently I found my Sennheiser PXC450 noise cancelling 'phones a boon - no more aeroplane drone!

Has anyone else tried some - what did you think?

I tried some on a flight to New Zealand, and they worked a bit too well - couldn't hear the flight staff!

Don't remember the brand, it was part of the in-flight service, but very welcome on a noisy flight when trying to catch some kip.

Panasonic makes good ones

I have the panasonic RP-HC500. these are awesome! One battery, easy to wear (they cover the entire ear and are not heavy) and you can swtich off the noise cancellation if you want. They are a little bass heavy, but as someone who listens to a lot of hip-hop and electronica, that is a benefit! They are pricey, though definitely worth it if you fly a lot. Never use them on the street though, because they do block out pretty much everything, which could be dangerous.

Yeah, you certainly wouldn't want to have them on behind the wheel of a car, for example:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/headphones-a-hazard-behind-wheel-20090318-925r.html

I'm currently using the cheapest ones in the Sony range - uncomfortable and ineffective. Avoid.

I have the MDR-NC22 model from Sony and these have been great. Not sure which ones are the cheapest in the range. They were about $100 in Japan. They have a slight hiss when turned on but when you are playing music you don't notice it.

There is also a new model now, which is the NC33. A good comparison of the two models is on this site, http://www.bewajapan.com/mdr-nc22_mdr-nc33_review.

lucky nugget

I wanna have one of that.

That's pretty amazing, is there any available product for that headphone?